Category: Landscape Ideas

While summer is well underway, there is still plenty of time to create a magical backyard that you love to spend time in, and there is certainly enough time to start planning for next year. But unless you’re a gardener or a landscape mastermind, you may not know how to design a backyard that really wows. Here are some tips for backyard design, as well as a look into the Hayden Homes’ Dream Backyard Giveaway.

Start with the big areas. The article recommends that a homeowner start by planning the size and shape of the biggest areas of the backyard first, such as lawn or courtyard. This will help you to understand how the rest of your yard will be shaped.

Understand your personal preferences. When creating spaces, you have a choice between straight lines or curved, symmetrical or asymmetrical designs, circles or squares, etc. While the shape of your home and the amount of space you’re working with may influence these choices, your personal preference will likely have the biggest effect on this decision. Look through landscaping and gardening magazines and pay attention to what draws your eye and affection the most.

Keep things balanced and bold. As you’re planning your landscape, you want to keep things balanced, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a little bold, too. One recommendation from landscape architect Gary Menendez is to soften straight lines with flowers or lush plants, and to make curved garden pop by putting in an herb garden in a geometrical or sharp-line pattern.

Of course, there’s always the option of hiring a professional, too! With a little research and planning, though, you should be able to create a beautiful landscape on a budget.

Download Ideas from our Previous Backyard Winners
If you’re looking for a little more inspiration and you don’t want to design your backyard from scratch, we are excited to share with you the plans from our past Dream Backyards winners! Feel free to download and utilize these!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just have a professional come and design your backyard for you and if you didn’t have to worry about coming up with the moolah? With the Hayden Homes’ Dream Backyard Giveaway, that’s exactly what you could get! The Dream Backyard Giveaway is an opportunity to turn your dreams for your backyard into a reality. The giveaway is a whopping $25,000 that can go to whatever your backyard dream is! Have you been thinking about a backyard jacuzzi? Or maybe a fire pit? Or just beds upon beds of gorgeous flowers or vegetable gardens? You can enter to win NOW thru August 15th, 2018 on the Hayden Homes’ Dream Backyard Giveaway website. There is no purchase necessary.

Start with Your Dream Home

Before you can start thinking about your dream backyard, you need to find your dream home! Hayden Homes can help – we have homes for sale throughout the Northwest, including the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. We help homebuyers like you in buying your first home, upgrading to a bigger home, or just changing locations. Contact us today to learn more!

Now that you’ve moved into your brand new home, you’re likely focused on tips and strategies for keeping your dream home – and your yard – looking as wonderful as possible. With great weather up ahead as the days become warming and longer, now’s the time to start thinking about low-maintenance flowers that can add color and beauty to your Pacific Northwest home. For low-maintenance gardening that will continue to bloom year-after-year, we come up with this list of some of the best (low-maintenance) perennial, flowers, that are perfect for homeowners in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

Primroses

Best for homes that get a lot of sun and soil that will drain completely, primroses are easy to care for, and will keep coming back without replanting every year – a homeowner’s dream! These are one of the earliest flowers to bloom each season, making them especially eye-catching.

Cardinal Flowers

Cardinal flowers, also called cardinal wildflowers, are some of the most beautiful flowers to keep in your yard. These flowers are a shocking red color that catches the eye and draws attention from passersby, and are one of a hummingbird’s favorite. These flowers like morning sun and afternoon shade, and moist soil (perfect in Washington and Oregon). A great plus of these low-maintenance flowers, is that they will self-sow if left unclipped, meaning that you can count on them reblooming for years to come. Don’t want them to drop seeds? Clip out the flower stems when they’re done blooming.

Dahlia

The name of this flower alone may be enough to persuade you to plant it; when you find out that there are thousands of dahlia varieties, you’ll be convinced. These flowers can get up to six feet tall, and are available in multiple colors. They’ll start blooming about eight weeks after planting (or around mid-July if you already have them in your yard). Grown primarily for cut flowers in bouquets, you can leave your dahlias in the ground, or cut them and bring them inside for a way to spruce up your new home.

Shasta Daisy

The Shasta daisy is a simple and sweet flower that is easy to grow and nice to look at. These flowers will bloom in the summertime, and can provide year-round green foliage depending on your location. To keep these flowers happy, plant in an area where the soil drains completely and the flowers will be partially shaded; full sun can be too harsh for Shasta daisies. One of the best things about these flowers is that once they’re in the ground, care is minimal. You can cut foliage back after blooming (usually around September) to keep the plant healthy and ready to flower again the following year.

A Beautiful, Easy to Maintain, Yard Can Make a Big Difference

When you have a beautiful yard, your new home will feel that much more inviting, and the outdoors will be more enjoyable to spend time in. For these and other great home maintenance tips, check out our home maintenance tips/tricks page HERE. To learn more about our new homes for sale in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, get in touch with us today. Whether you’re buying your first home or looking to upgrade to a new home in the Northwest, we have the properties of your dreams.

If you own a brand new home in the Northwest, now’s the time to start getting your new home’s landscape in order. That means starting up your watering system, fertilizing and getting an early start on weed control. Thankfully, the weather is finally warm enough to enjoy being outside, and to not have to worry about winter frosts that may kill flowers and buds that are planted (knock on wood). That being said, here are a number of low maintenance, and budget-friendly landscape ideas that you can try this spring!

Budget-Friendly, Landscape Idea #1 – Plant Some Vegetables

Planting a vegetable garden is one of the best ways to make use of your yard, and can even end up saving you money (fewer trips to the supermarket). There are a lot of different stylistic options for planting a vegetable garden – square-foot gardening is often touted as one of the most effective ways of maximizing vegetable production and minimizing costs. In addition to being relatively inexpensive and providing your family with vegetables throughout the season, veggie gardens also look great! Want to try something smaller but equally as spectacular? Consider creating an outdoor herb or salsa garden.

Low Maintenance, Landscape Idea #2 – Add Light and Warmth

Another landscape idea for your Northwest home, is that you can use to make your back or front yard look great is to add some lighting. From solar lamps to big bulbs, outdoor LED lighting is one of the easiest ways to add ambiance and warmth. You can even consider adding an outdoor fireplace, many of which can be purchased for under $200.

Low Maintenance, Landscape Idea #3 – Create an Outdoor Living Space

When the weather is nice, there is nothing more pleasant than spending a few hours outdoors with family or friends, perhaps for a game of Scrabble, a barbeque, or just to have a nice conversation or read a book. Which means that you need to create a great outdoor living space, which will not only contribute to your comfort, but also add to the overall look and feel of your yard. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on brand new patio furniture, consider repurposing older furniture with outdoor fabrics, this is not only a budget-friendly landscape idea, but can be a great conversation starter with friends and family.

Budget-Friendly, Landscape Idea #4 – Go Wild

You can reinvent parts of your yard without spending hundreds of dollars or spending a lot of time. Just let things go wild! We’re not talking about letting your landscape become overgrown and out of control, but rather throwing wildflower seeds in un-planted garden beds, a ditch, or other areas of your yard that could use some color. Wildflowers are easy to grow and require little maintenance, which is perfect for those with busy lives that are looking for an easier, more low maintenance option for the landscaping in your new home.

Spring has Sprung. It’s Time to Spruce Up the Landscaping in Your Yard

Are you living in a new home in Washington, Oregon, or Idaho that doesn’t yet have a finished landscape? You can use the landscaping ideas above to inexpensively transform your yard into a place that attracts positive attention and is a joy to spend time in. To learn more about our new homes for sale in the Northwest, reach out to us today!